Nothing But A Ghost Story
by Ebenbild
Summary: "It's for the Greater Good," Gellert told him. "The Greater Good of whom?" Albus countered. In the end, it doesn't matter because they're both different sides of the same coin - and the only thing important is the metal they're imprinted on. Or a story about Albus's, Gellert's, Aberforth's and Ariana's relationship over the years. Canon-based, but basically AU.


_Author's Note: Written for Round 15 for Season 6 of the QLFC_

_Finals: This or That?_

_Team: Pride of Portree_

_Position: Chaser 2_

_Prompt: Albus Dumbledore/Gellert Grindelwald_

_Additional Prompts:_

_3\. (dialogue) "Wow, this is a rather inappropriate time to drop by."_

_7\. (song) Scars to Your Beautiful - Alessia Cara_

_8\. (time period) dinner time_

_Word Count: 2,573_

_Betas: Story Please, crochetaway, Litfreak89, Claude Amelia Song_

_Additional Author's Note:_

_Used is also passages from HP and the Deathly Hallows._

_This story is AU _**but**_ also based in canon. Everything known in canon happens exactly the same! The only exception to that is the day Kendra Dumbledore died._

_**Disclaimer**__: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

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sSsSsSsSs

_**NOTHING BUT A GHOST STORY**_

sSs

_"They're both different sides of the same coin - and he's the metal they're imprinted on."_

sSs

Helplessness.

Fear.

And the bitter realisation that if he died as well, _she_ would wake up alone.

_Alone_.

Mother was dead - he had seen her lifeless eyes.

His brother was dead - no way someone could survive losing half of their chest.

And he was dead as well.

"But I can't… I _can't_ die. I can't leave her alone!"

I _CAN'T!_

This was the last thing he thought, and the world rearranged to fit his last burst of accidental magic…

sSs

"_Then, when she was fourteen... see, I wasn't there; if I'd been there, I could have calmed her down. She had one of her rages, and my mother wasn't as young as she was, and... it was an accident. Ariana couldn't control it. But my mother was killed."_

sSs

Looking after Ariana was the worst thing for him. Albus had been brilliant, the perfect student, the future of the world – the best and the brightest the world had to offer. But... playing it, playing perfect, playing the bastard... that was the worst thing that could have happened.

Being forced to look after Ariana on top of that... it nearly broke him. Only the thought of what Aberforth would say, what Aberforth would do if he found out what memories he had lost, kept him going.

So he forced himself to play the brother Aberforth knew and only when Aberforth was gone, only when Ariana and he were alone, did he actually act like he always had towards her before their mother had died.

"Ariana," he said, when she looked at him in confusion. "He mustn't know. Aberforth... he has a whole life waiting for him. He can... he _can't_ throw that away and he would if he ever found out the truth of what happened that day mother died."

"You mean that day I killed you," Ariana corrected, with tears in her eyes. "I'm –"

"Don't apologize," he interrupted her. "I swore to look after you and Aberforth – and that is what I will do."

Nevertheless, he was cracking up before the summer even ended –until the day he met Gellert Grindelwald in the streets and felt whole for the first time in a while.

And maybe, maybe it was foolish to get roped into the idea of revenge, into the idea of conquering the world – but then again, he wasn't much more than a foolish boy, born from the mind of another foolish boy, and there was no way that he would be able to think maturely.

"It's for the Greater Good," Gellert told him in one of their discussions.

"The Greater Good of whom?" Albus countered, and Gellert looked at him with sadness in the eyes.

"Ariana's." He hesitated for a moment as if bracing himself for the unavoidable hurt in Albus' eyes. "And Aberforth's."

sSs

"_I'd have looked after her, I told him so, I didn't care about school, I'd stayed home and done it. He told me I had to finish my education and _**he'd** _take over from my mother. (...) But he did all right for a few weeks... 'til he came."_

sSs

"Stealing, little boy?"

Aberforth startled before scampering backwards to get distance between himself and the man who had suddenly become the best friend of his older brother.

"What are you doing here, Grindelwald?" he asked the other one.

Grindelwald just crooked his head to the side.

"I was contemplating if you actually wanted to steal my wand, you know?" he said as casually as one talked about the weather.

"What would I do with your wand?" Aberforth countered immediately, his eyes defiant.

The older teen shrugged.

"You could get your revenge," he suggested. "It _**is**_ the most powerful wand in existence, you know?"

"You're delusional," Aberforth countered. "There's nobody I want to get revenge on."

"There isn't?" For a moment, Grindelwald actually looked surprised by that revelation, but then he slowly nodded.

"Ah no," he said thoughtfully. "I guess there wouldn't be. There's no way for you to feel hatred, after all – and you need to hate someone to wish to get revenge on them..."

Then he smirked and ruffled Aberforth's hair.

"Don't worry, little thief," he said. "I will get revenge on the world for both of us, then."

"You're deranged!" Aberforth grit out and freed himself from Grindelwald's touch.

"And you're a bit messed up in the head," Grindelwald countered as if he was called deranged every day. "But don't worry; Albus and I won't like you less because of that."

And with that, Grindelwald turned around to walk away.

"If you ever want to steal my wand," he called over his shoulder as if it was just a matter of time Aberforth would feel the need to do so, "do it with a bit more decorum than you used today, will you?"

And with that he was off, leaving a spluttering Aberforth behind...

sSs

"**I** _was her favourite – not Albus, he was always up in his bedroom when he was home, reading his books and counting his prizes, keeping up his correspondence with 'the most notable magical names of the day.'"_

sSs

"Ariana," Albus said slowly, looking at his sister with sadness in his eyes. She just smiled at him, clearly already guessing what it was about.

"I'm burdening you, aren't I, Albus?" she asked with nothing but understanding in her eyes.

"You aren't," her brother immediately denied.

"But you and I have to admit, that it can't continue like it has until now," Gellert added and looked at the younger girl tiredly.

"It can't," she agreed. "It shouldn't have for a long time now."

Then her understanding eyes fixed on her brother.

"I will die, won't I?" she guessed.

"Some time in the future, most likely," Gellert agreed.

"It's getting worse and worse," Albus added. "With every episode you have, you have a harder time coming back to yourself -"

"And one day I won't," Ariana concluded. "You don't want that day to happen."

"Not if we can help it," Albus agreed.

"Aberforth will be sad if I'm gone," Ariana couldn't help but point out.

The two older boys looked at each other.

"A portrait, then?" Gellert suggested.

Ariana thought about it.

"With my soul bound to it," she agreed. "I will only leave when Aberforth dies or won't need me anymore."

For a moment, the other two contemplated it.

It was Albus who finally told her.

"Will you keep our memories as well if we die before he's ready?"

"You don't want him to remember?" Ariana asked while tilting her head.

"Not when he's not ready," Albus agreed.

"And if he's never ready?"

"He will be, one day," Albus said.

"And until then, either Albus or I will keep him safe from remembering... or you if both of us are gone," Gellert told her.

Ariana smiled, kissed his cheek and agreed.

"So it shall be."

sSs

"_And there was an argument... and I pulled out my wand, and he pulled out his, and I had the Cruciatus Curse used on me by my brother's best friend. (...) 'Course, Grindelwald scarpered. He had a bit of a track record already, back in his own country, and he didn't want Ariana set to his account too."_

sSs

"Gellert! Stop it! We have to stop it!" Albus shook the other man. "We're going too far! You're going too far! The world is burning and we -"

"And the world should burn for what it did to _our_ sister!" Gellert countered, his hands gripping Albus's fists and trying to loosen his grip.

"NO!" Albus objected, pulling the other closer. "Not like that! Never like that!"

The other one just leaned closer as well.

"Yes! Just like that!"

In the end, they fought it out on the battlefield.

It was Albus who won...

sSs

"_You know, Albus, as much as you wish it wasn't true - you and me, we're both two sides of the same coin… and Aberforth is the metal we're imprinted on."_

sSs

The day Albus died, Gellert found out by the feeling of a stab in his heart. It was a feeling he couldn't remember ever having – or at least not for a long, long time, and it made him feel suddenly desperate.

Until then, Gellert always had been content in his cell, but that night, the moment he felt the loss of what was part of him – the moment he felt that something very important had been stolen from him, had been ripped away from him – if he acted like a mad man that night and scared his wardens to hell and back... well, if anybody understood, it would be those who had been closest to him in life.

Albus was gone.

Albus was _gone_.

He whimpered and turned away from the window and door to face the wall.

He was shaking, his body frail and wisp-like.

_Albus_ was gone – and he was alone.

"Aberforth," he whispered and looked upwards towards his ceiling, his hand stroking the wall in front of him. "Aberforth... tell me, will you ever forgive me for what I had to do to ensure that at least you could live your life?"

He knew that Aberforth never would – but as long as Gellert existed, as long as Aberforth wasn't yet alone, Gellert would bear the burden and accept that the other one would hate him for the rest of his existence.

"But that's alright," he told the wall. "I've known that all along. I was born to lessen your burden. I was born to give you a life you could live with – and not that burdened existence you would have had if Albus and I wouldn't have existed... an existence of hate and guilt and grief, so much grief..."

And Gellert had to admit, at least to himself, that he wasn't even sorry that he involved half of the world in his anger and hatred for Muggles.

sSs

"_Kill me then!" demanded the old man. "You will not win, you cannot win! That wand will never, ever be yours –"_

sSs

"Wow," Gellert said sarcastically the moment he saw a wizard whom he hadn't seen in over a century, entering the corridor of his cell. "This is a rather inappropriate time to drop by."

The man heard him, but his face stayed expressionless.

"It's dinner time," he countered. "Nothing inappropriate there."

"And yet, isn't that the time when lovers secretly meet, Aberforth?" Gellert countered. "Be careful, or people might assume you're here for a dinner date or two…"

"Shut up, bastard!" came the icy reply. "People would never assume that I had a _date_ of any kind with you - not as long as they remember what you did!"

"Ah, but Aberforth," the once blond-haired wizard said and leaned forward towards the other man. He looked faded in Aberforth's eyes, less real, washed out as if he had long since started to vanish behind the veil. "I'm not real, am I? After all, I'm nothing but a ghost story this day and age..."

"You're not a ghost story," Aberforth growled. "You're a nightmare long since past."

"That, too," the old man agreed readily, his faded features scrunching up into a barely seen smile. "But it was expected of me. From the three of us, it was always me who had the highest chance of fading first. Anger... well, anger doesn't last long, you know? Especially when the grief upon a loss was already lost in time."

"Stop speaking in riddles, Grindelwald!" Aberforth spat. "I'm only here to tell you –"

"That Albus is dead," Gellert interrupted him, his eyes dark and sad in a way Aberforth wasn't sure he had ever seen before. "I know."

"That's... that's your answer?!" Aberforth stared at the other man in disbelief. "You know? Nothing more! Just 'you know'?"

"There's nothing else to say," Gellert replied and leaned back, his faded face looking at Aberforth in pity. "I can't feel love or regret. I wasn't made that way."

Aberforth scoffed.

"You mean to tell me you're a monster who –"

"I'm not a monster!" The voice of the faded man was suddenly harsh and hard. "I'm not a monster! I'm solely here to protect one person – and one person alone. No matter what you think about me, I will keep protecting them until my very end. I was made that way, after all!"

But Aberforth didn't listen. He'd had enough of the other man's insanity, so he turned and walked away with a single parting shot.

"At least," he said, "telling you relieves me of the last favour I owed my brother. We won't see each other again after this, Grindelwald."

"We won't," Gellert agreed. "And I'm sorry for this – but maybe, just maybe, like it is, it will be for the best..."

sSs

"_So, you have come. I thought you would... one day. But your journey was pointless. I never had it."_

"_You lie!"_

"_Kill me, then, Voldemort, I welcome death! But my death will not bring you what you seek... there is so much you do not understand..."_

sSs

The memories hit him at dinner time.

It was the day after the battle of Hogwarts, and he was sitting in his room over the Hog's Head and was eating his dinner when he looked up and into Ariana's eyes.

She smiled sadly at him and released her hold on those memories she had guarded for Albus and Gellert until Aberforth was ready.

He was ready now in her eyes.

So the next thing he knew was that he _knew_.

He remembered his struggle.

His wish to stay alive.

For Ariana.

Always for Ariana.

He remembered his brother dead, his mother dead and _no, no, no, no_!

"I died that day," he whispered. "Albus died. I died. Mother died. Only you -"

"Didn't," Ariana finished for him sadly. "I'm sorry, Aberforth. I couldn't control it."

He waved it off.

Ariana's episodes had gotten worse and worse. It had only been a matter of time until -

It was then that the rage and grief hit him. He had never felt rage that powerful.

All-consuming, all-destroying.

"No wonder Gellert tried to destroy the world for me," he whispered.

Then the grief hit.

Heart-wrenching, soul-sucking.

"No wonder Albus wouldn't even look me in the eyes for years," he thought.

But… the man he had seen as his brother Albus… had never been Albus; his brother had died with their mother.

Ariana had known.

Gellert had known.

No, not Gellert. _Aberforth._

Not Albus. _Aberforth._

He had split himself to give himself security… to ensure that he could function without being blinded by hatred and grief.

But someone had to have those emotions for him - and Albus and Gellert had come into being.

"You were both different sides of the same coin - and I'm the metal you're imprinted on."

It was that thought that finally ensured that he could accept what not even Gellert and Albus had grasped. They had fought for him, tried to protect him… but they had never understood.

"I'm nothing but a ghost story," Aberforth said, then smiled.

A moment later his body faded away, slowly but surely, and when the next morning Harry Potter and his friends would come by, they'd find an empty portrait and a pile of ashes from a body long since dead...

sSs

_"They're both different sides of the same coin - and he's the metal they're imprinted on."_

sSsSsSsSs

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_Sometimes I wonder where my mind has wandered off again... *sweat-drop* XD_

_I hope you liked it somewhat._

_Ebenbild_


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